4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 4, 2015
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
Criminals and dynamite are a
long tradition in Oregon
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
F
or the criminally minded
Oregonian of yore, dyna-
mite had much to recommend it.
It was relatively easy to buy the
stuff, surprisingly easy to steal
it from a construction depot, and
almost shockingly simple to brew
up at home using a few simple, in-
nocuous ingredients from the lo-
cal drugstore.
Furthermore, when used in a
criminal enterprise, dynamite was
like a fi rst-class ticket to the front
page of the local papers. A lot of
crooks really enjoyed the ensuing
notoriety.
So it’s not surprising that it
enjoyed a relatively high level of
popularity among the state’s crim-
inal class. It’s been used for plenty
of crimes over the past 100 years
or so — crimes against society as
well as crimes against good sense.
In addition to obvious abuses of
dynamite by safecrackers, train
robbers and self-styled dead-
whale disposal experts, dynamite
has also proved a great boon to:
Extortionists. Naturally, “pony
up or be blown up” is a compel-
ling argument, although it doesn’t
always come together the way the
extortionist wants it to. In the case
of D.B. Cooper, the skyjacker who
in 1970 took a commercial air-
line fl ight hostage for a $200,000
payoff, it worked nicely — al-
though there’s plenty of doubt as
to whether Cooper lived to enjoy
it. In the case of David Heesh, the
“Beavercreek Bomber,” who in
?74 dynamited a dozen high-volt-
age power lines and threatened cut
off power to Portland if he didn’t
get a $1 million ransom, it did not
— the FBI triangulated on his CB
radio signal and caught him red-
handed.
Jailbreakers: Prison, until rela-
tively recently, was a place where
inmates worked hard at tough,
dangerous, exhausting jobs —
building roads, breaking rocks,
and so on. Projects like that some-
times involved dynamite. When
they did, enterprising would-be
busters-out were not slow to take
advantage of any opportunities
that came their way.
Late in the evening of July 28,
1907, a massive explosion rocked
the Portland city jail at Kelly
Butte. A group of four inmates
had managed to smuggle three
sticks of the good stuff home
from the jail’s rock quarry. Then
they spent at least a week trying to
surreptitiously drill a hole in the
prison wall, using a railroad spike
for a bit and the heel of a shoe for
a hammer. Finally, having made
about a one-inch-deep divot in the
wall, they tamped the dynamite
against it as best they could, lit the
fuse, and took cover.
The blast cracked the concrete
wall of the prison bunker but didn’t
breach it. Unfortunately for the in-
mates involved, it was pretty easy
to fi gure out who was responsible.
Everyone in the joint ran for cover
except four guys, who eagerly ran
straight into the smoke and falling
plaster. No doubt they tried their
best to “act natural” when they got
to Ground Zero and saw the wall
still there, but the guards didn’t
buy it, and all four of them were
busted.
Things worked out even worse
for a convict named Harry Ed-
wards at the pen in Walla Walla,
just over the border in Washing-
ton state, in late 1915. Edwards’
plan involved extracting the nitro-
glycerin from the dynamite he’d
stolen by boiling it in a big kettle
— a technique well known to the
“yeggs” of the day, who liked the
more concentrated and pourable
nitroglycerine for tough safe-
cracking jobs. The “soup” would
fl oat to the surface, where it could
be skimmed off and carefully bot-
tled up for later use.
Unfortunately for Edwards, the
state was using a different kind of
dynamite.
“After an explosion which
wrecked a corner of the bunk-
house and infl icted minor injuries
to two sleeping convicts, Edwards
was found fully dressed, while
fragments of a metal kettle were
distributed over the landscape,”
the Pendleton East Oregonian re-
ported the next day. “Edwards was
considerably ‘peeved’ at the state
for providing dynamite which
proved so tricky.”
The paper doesn’t mention how
badly Edwards was hurt in the
blast, but it couldn’t have been
too bad, because he was out of the
hospital within a week.
Jealous lovers. Yes, there have
been a few examples of young men
using dynamite for this purpose —
either trying to murder the unre-
sponsive objects of their affection,
or their rivals. One memorable
case happened in Klamath Falls
in 1912, when a 30-year-old log-
ger named George Gowan learned
that the 17-year-old girl he was
sweet on, Miss Adeline Beck, was
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Chair issues
This is in regard to the ser-
vice I have received from Nu-
motion concerning my electric
power chair. I have severe MS
and I am dependent on my
powe rchair at all times, from
performing daily functions to
getting to medical appoint-
ments.
Numotion has been con-
tracted to supply repairs to
my power chair, and in late
October of 2014, I contacted
Numotion for repairs to my
chair. On Oct. 30, the techni-
cian brought the required leg
lift but failed to bring the parts
required to install it.
By Nov. 6, my chair was re-
duced to going in circles to the
left. I was stuck in a hallway,
unable to go anywhere but
into a wall.
On Nov. 10, another techni-
cian came out and determined
that the left motor was going
out. He said he would order a
new one.
I spoke to the technician
several times between then
and Dec. 4, at which time I
found out that the motor had
not even been ordered yet and
that my chair would be out of
order until after the fi rst of the
year.
It is now Jan. 30, and I am
still without a working pow-
er chair or any indication as
to when I might expect the
repairs. I am relegated to a
manual chair which, to say the
least, is extremely diffi cult for
me to use with my MS. I am
practically bedridden since
transferring from the bed to
the manual chair is almost
impossible without help. My
quality of life has plummeted
drastically.
Life can be challenging for
people with disabilities, and
often we have to rely on medi-
cal supply companies to sup-
ply/repair the things that make
our lives a little easier and
help us cope with our physical
restrictions. Companies such
as Numotion shouldn’t even
be allowed to contract to deal
with mobility issues when they
are so unprofessional and un-
sympathetic to the people they
are supposed to be serving.
I would strongly warn any-
one with mobility issues to be-
ware of Numotion.
Nichole Fegles
Cottage Grove
Loggers got
gypped
Thank you, Wilbur and
Catherine Heath for what you
have done to help further the
safety conditions, business
practices, logging methods
and image of the timber in-
dustry. I include Catherine be-
cause it has been a joint effort.
Wilbur spending all day on
the job site and then having to
spend numerous evenings and
weekends working with the
Associated Oregon Loggers to
get that organization off the
ground had to have an affect
on family life.
I must take exception to the
term “gyppo”. It was not be-
cause loggers gypped people
— it was because loggers
were getting gypped by so
many people. Granted, a few
loggers would not pay all of
the crews wages and would
gyp the employees by not pay-
ing them, or shorting them on
hours — but they were far and
few between.
To get on with how the log-
ger was gypped: There were
the scalers employed by the
people buying the logs; they
would short-change the logger
on the scale an inch or two on
diameter or maybe even more,
and then gyp them on length.
They would cut the grade of
the log, and a number one
mill would suddenly be a two
mill; a one-peeler would be a
three-peeler at best, a high-
defect one at that; there would
be cull-out logs that were not
culls. Sometimes they would
cut the net volume by cutting
the diameter and length be-
cause of a perceived defect.
Like the old saying goes,
“One scaler knows how many
board feet are in a log, two
are not sure.” Then the mill
would give the scaler their
earned bonus. When water
scale was popular, some logs
were somehow missed and did
not get scaled at all. The tim-
ber owner would quite often
extend the property line so the
logger was trespassing when
in fact he would be guided
by the owner’s directions as
to where to log; then the log-
ger was the dumb so-and-so
for trespassing. When the mill
owner got a load that was mis-
scaled and they were aware
of it, the timber would get cut
up or put into the deck before
the logger got the scale slip
— there was no way to fi nd
the logs in question then.
So you see, it wasn’t the
logger that was gypping peo-
ple; it was because he was so
easy to gyp.
With the different log scal-
ing bureaus that have been
established that has almost
come to an end, and the scal-
ers now days are honest and
trustworthy people, as well as
the people buying the timber.
They wouldn’t be in business
if they weren’t.
I do not fi nd the term “Gyp-
po Logger” derogatory. I wear
that badge proudly.
To get back to the original
point I was making, Thank
You Wilbur and Catherine!
Dick Gilkison
Cottage Grove
Preserve your vision: prevent (or reverse) diabetes
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
D
iabetes is a serious dis-
ease that poses consid-
erable risks to the vascular sys-
tem, particularly to the crucial
and delicate blood vessels of the
eyes.
Diabetes
is the lead-
ing cause of
blindness
in adults.
Nonrefrac-
tive visual
impairment
refers to a
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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visual defect that cannot be cor-
rected with glasses, and diabetic
retinopathy is a common cause
of nonrefractive visual impair-
ment. Retinopathy is quite com-
mon among diabetics; about
one-third of diabetics over the
age of 40 have diabetic retinop-
athy. Retinopathy can lead to
serious vision loss, preventing
sufferers from driving and liv-
ing independently.
A new study has uncovered
an alarming upward trend in
nonrefractive visual impairment
and provides evidence that the
diabetes epidemic is likely the
cause.
Nonrefractive visual impair-
ment increased by 21 percent
among adults between 1999 and
2008 – a dramatic increase in a
short period of time. When bro-
ken down by age, the largest in-
crease in prevalence occurred in
younger people – 20 to 39 years
of age, compared to older age
groups. This is a stark fi nding
that predicts climbing rates of
disability among middle-aged
and younger adults in the near
future.
The researchers then looked
to the risk factors for this type
of visual impairment to fi nd the
potential underlying causes.
The risk factors include older
age, poverty, lower education
level, lack of health insurance
and diabetes. Diabetes rates in-
creased by 22 percent among
U.S. adults from 1999 to 2008,
and the other risk factors re-
mained relatively stable, sug-
gesting that the increase in vi-
sual impairment was due to the
increase in diabetes.
Once diabetes is diagnosed,
the damage to the body pro-
gresses over time, and the risk
of complications progressively
rises. Having diabetes for at
least 10 years was linked to
greater risk of nonrefractive vi-
sual impairment, and a greater
proportion of the population had
been living with diabetes for at
least 10 years in 2008 compared
to 1999; in adults younger than
40, this proportion doubled.
Type 2 diabetes is becoming
more common in younger popu-
lations, and therefore diabetes is
beginning to do its damage ear-
lier in life, bringing dangerous
complications, such as vision
impairment, earlier in life.
This is alarming data that
begs for action; it indicates that
medical advances toward better
glucose control are not prevent-
ing vision loss due to diabetes.
Managing glucose with drugs is
not enough – we must get rid of
diabetes to get rid of the risk.
Preventing and reversing dia-
betes: for type 1 and type 2 dia-
betics, the risk of vision-related
complications can be eliminated
with a nutritarian eating style
plus frequent exercise. The veg-
etable-based dietary program
described in my book “The End
of Diabetes” is the most effec-
tive dietary approach for those
with diabetes and is much more
effective than drugs. For a Type
2 diabetic, this approach results
in complete reversal of the dia-
betic condition for the majority
of patients. For a Type 1 diabetic
it eliminates the excessive highs
and lows, dramatically reduces
insulin requirements and pre-
vents the degenerative diseases
common in later life in those
with type 1 diabetes. Both type
1 and type 2 diabetics can main-
tain excellent health, proper
eyesight and quality of life into
old age. Now is the time for
us individually and collectively
to utilize modern nutritional sci-
ence to save our vision and save
lives.
Dr. Fuhrman is the #1 New
York Times bestselling author of
Eat to Live and Super Immunity,
and a board certifi ed family phy-
sician specializing in lifestyle
and nutritional medicine. Visit
his website at DrFuhrman.com.
Submit your questions and com-
ments about this column directly
to newsquestions@drfuhrman.
com.
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